Randy Metcalf/The Explorer, A weekly offering of produce at Tucson CSA costs members $19. Organizers of the CSA compare their prices weekly to supermarket organic produce, and prices usually are similar.

Randy Metcalf/The Explorer, Tucson Community Supported Agriculture volunteers, from left, Daniela Diamente, Ignacio River De Rosales and Neil Diamente, unload the day's produce selections for members to pick up. Members of the Tucson CSA purchase a share of a farm's harvest, which they pick up weekly.

Randy Metcalf/The Explorer, Sweet potatoes were part of the harvest given out to members last week.

Randy Metcalf/The Explorer, A weekly offering of produce at Tucson CSA costs members $19. Organizers of the CSA compare their prices weekly to supermarket organic produce, and prices usually are similar.

Randy Metcalf/The Explorer, Tucson Community Supported Agriculture volunteers, from left, Daniela Diamente, Ignacio River De Rosales and Neil Diamente, unload the day's produce selections for members to pick up. Members of the Tucson CSA purchase a share of a farm's harvest, which they pick up weekly.

It looks like okra again for members of Tucson Community
Supported Agriculture.

For several weeks now, members have gotten the capsule-shaped
vegetable with their shares. It’s all part of the deal with
community-supported agriculture (CSA), Philippe Waterinckx
explained.

“The way you cook is driven by the ingredients you get,”
Waterinckx said.

He started the Tucson CSA in 2004 with one farmer and about 15
members. Today, the membership rolls have swelled to 500, with a
waiting list of more than 100.

In simple terms, community-supported agriculture members agree
to support one or more local farms. They buy subscriptions for a
growing season, and in turn, they receive weekly shares of whatever
the farm harvests.

“You’re not really buying the vegetables, you’re buying a share
of a farm,” Waterinckx said.

The community-supported agriculture philosophy first popped up
in Japan and Europe in the 1960s.

It’s been around in the U.S. for almost as long. But its
popularity has soared in the past few years as many begin to take a
closer look at the food they eat and where it comes from.

Thousands of groups similar to Tucson CSA have sprouted up
throughout the country.

As a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, Waterinckx —
a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (his parents came from
Belgium) — studied the lives of organic farmers.

Through his research he found that small farms benefited from
the community-supported agriculture model.

Farmers’ markets sales are mostly nickel and dime for the
small-time farmer.

Many sought more profitable ways to compete against the
supermarket and its agri-business suppliers.

The CSA model offers a way to do that.

Community-supported agriculture groups buy an entire harvest —
cash on the barrel to a small family farm.

And CSA members benefit from a steady supply of fresh and
locally grown produce.

But for Waterinckx, it’s as much about relationships as it is
fresh vegetables.

“We can talk with the farmer, and we have a personal
relationship,” Waterinckx said.

Agua Linda Farm near Amado grows much of the region’s CSA
produce.

Farmer Stewart Loew, 39, grew up at Agua Linda, a farm once run
by his father.

In 1957, his dad bought and farmed 1,000 acres near the Santa
Cruz River south of Tucson.

But the farming endeavor lasted only a few years, after which he
leased the land to pecan farmers.

His dad since passed away. Today, all but 63 acres remain in the
family.

A dreadlocked philosopher-farmer in sandals, Loew has a command
of the region’s farming and ranching history.

Like the battles over water that pecan and other farmers fought
against the area mines.

“These little farmers brought the mine to its knees,” Loew
recalled.

In the 1990s, Loew started to farm a portion of the land.

Mesclun and other lettuces was the first crop planted at the
restored farm.

He encourages people to come to Agua Linda and see pesticide-
and herbicide-free farming at work.

While the CSA and local farming model has grown into one of the
most popular food trends in the country, the farming methods
hearken to the 19th century.

At Agua Linda farm, Loew does almost everything by hand.

He and his workers sow seeds with a manual Planet Jr. seeder
they push through the fields.

“That fed this country through the Great Depression and the dust
bowl,” Loew said of his old-time two-wheeled cart.

The farm also uses a centuries-old method of weed control.

Turning loose cows and horses into fallow fields to chomp the
weeds not only rids the unwanted vegetation but provides a hefty
load of fertilizer.

That sort of farming, though, presents challenges at Agua
Linda.

This season, insects devastated Loew’s crops.

“We had to bail out of the fall CSA because we have grasshoppers
of, like, biblical proportions,” Loew said.

Scores of the bugs sprang from the foliage with each step Loew
took through the watermelon field last week.

It’s a seven-year cycle, Loew explained.

The grasshoppers multiply until the seventh-year crescendo,
after which the cycle starts anew.

But pesticides aren’t an option; his customers wouldn’t have it.
So Agua Linda must wait out the bugs.

In the meantime, Loew hopes eating locally and CSAs don’t end up
as just another dietary trend.

“If we can get through to people, then we can create a more
efficient local food chain,” Loew said.

Community-supported agriculture groups help sow the seeds.

For the first two years, the Tucson CSA struggled to keep 100
members.

But things started to change a few years ago, Waterinckx
said.

More people started to get the message about community-supported
agriculture and numbers swelled.

Waterinckx attributes much of that to the 2006 publication of
Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivores Dilemma.”

For Loew, the more people who start to get it, the better.

He plans to increase production by automating harvests and
planting in “hoop houses,” which keep winter temperatures above
freezing and create a perfect environment for lettuce and other
fragile crops.

Plus, pests can’t flourish in houses the way they do outside.
And when they do strike, Loew sets a chicken or two loose inside to
peck away at the bugs one by one.

And it’s not just local farms the community-supported
agriculture helps support.

Artisanal food producers benefit as well.

The CSA buys free-range chickens and eggs that members can
purchase in addition to the produce.

Local ranches provide grass-fed beef and a Marana farmer breeds
pigs.

The group buys one animal at time, dividing the meat among
participating members.

Waterinckx said members can choose from a variety of fresh goat
cheeses produced at a small farm north of Show Low.

“It’s the best goat cheese I’ve ever had,” Kathleen Yetman
said.

In her first season with community-supported agriculture, Yetman
splits the $249, 13-week season with a friend.

The cost comes to $19 a week for a full share.

The group compares its costs to those in supermarkets’ organic
aisles. Most weeks, the group is the less costly option, Waterinckx
asserted.

In a society with growing concerns about what’s in our food and
where it comes from, the CSA provides another service.

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